Minister Ciro Nogueira (Casa Civil) criticized this Sunday (6) the possibility of issuing an extraordinary credit, through a provisional measure, to keep Auxílio Brasil at R$ 600, an option studied by the team of the elected government of Luiz Inácio Lula. da Silva (PT) and seen as possible by members of the TCU (Union Court of Auditors).
In the message, Ciro mocks the court of accounts, which, according to him, cannot make the “Legislative Branch an accessory body” of the court.
It is up to the TCU to assist and provide information to Congress on issues that concern budget execution.
“Public finance technicians understand that, in order to open an extraordinary credit in the traditional way provided for in the Constitution, as an exception to the spending cap, it is necessary to justify the urgency and unpredictability. How to do this for a continuous expense, such as Auxílio Brasil? “, wrote the minister.
He says that experts point out that the “simple” lack of resources does not seem “sufficient justification to support the issue of an extraordinary credit”.
“Remembering that the extraordinary credits of emergency aid were supported by a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution). The same technicians point out that the TCU, the advisory body of the Legislative Power, cannot make the Legislative Power an accessory body to the TCU, because would violate the Constitution,” he said.
In response, Minister Bruno Dantas, acting president of the court of accounts, stated that the court’s performance is technical and not political.
“Minister Ciro Nogueira knows the TCU deeply and knows how much the Court respects the Legislative Power and is jealous of the limits of its constitutional competence. Our field of action is technical and not political”, said Dantas.
The message from the Chief of Staff was read by Lula’s allies as a way of pressing for the edition of a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) to allow expenses outside the spending ceiling.
Lula needs this authorization to launch measures he proposed, such as maintaining the value of Auxílio Brasil and giving an even greater increase than predicted by Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for the minimum wage.
By guaranteeing the processing of a PEC, parliamentarians linked to Lula, Ciro and the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), are gaining bargaining power, since the speed of processing the text depends on the deputy.
In addition, there is a margin for members of the Legislature to make changes to the proposal and try to include measures of their own interest. For this reason, the use of the PEC, an instrument considered more likely by members of Lula’s transition team, was publicly criticized by Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL).
Calheiros classified the idea of the PEC as “barbering” and believes that it strengthens the centrão, a group of parties that largely supported Bolsonaro. The senator also fears the empowerment of Lira, his rival in Alagoas.
The senator’s preferred option, the issue of a provisional measure, takes effect immediately and can be made from January 1st, that is, in the midst of negotiations with a new parliamentary base in Congress.
Lula’s team has been discussing since Thursday the solution it will adopt to guarantee expenses above the spending ceiling.
In a meeting with ministers of the TCU (Union Court of Auditors), last week, the members of Lula’s transition team asked if they could make a consultation to obtain approval for the edition of an MP (provisional measure) opening extraordinary credit at the beginning of the new government to fund the extra spending in 2023.
The members of the court answered yes, not least because there are already precedents that would allow them to carry out the act.
Technicians who advise the transition team in the discussions in Congress, however, have a more restrictive view of what is possible or not to do with extraordinary credit, an instrument reserved for urgent and unpredictable expenses.
Therefore, this wing of technicians argues that the transition PEC would be the safest path from a legal and political point of view, to avoid wearing out the new government in the eyes of the population.
In recent days, PT members have returned to talk a few times with members of the TCU to carry out new informal consultations on the subject.
In the current scenario, the discussion is about which proposals by the president-elect can be forwarded via extraordinary credit MP and which must necessarily enter the PEC.
There is an understanding among PT members that new programs must be in the text of the PEC. This includes the granting of a real increase in the minimum wage, the creation of an extra R$ 150 per child up to six years of age in Auxílio Brasil and the guarantee fund to renegotiate debts in Desenrola Brasil.
There is still a concern about the impossibility of fitting into the criteria of extraordinary credit funds for actions that already exist and are permanent expenses (that is, they are not seen as something unpredictable). This situation includes the extra values for school meals and public transport, which would have to be included in the PEC. The increase in investments should also be included in this list, since they are works already in progress.
In this context, there are three possible combinations for the new government to solve the Budget node.
The first is to continue investing only in PEC. The budget’s rapporteur-general, Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), can include all the additional amounts foreseen in his opinion, conditioned to the approval of the PEC, and the elected government would make a concerted effort to vote on it until the end of the year.
The second is an option derived from the first, but it would give the PT a little more time to articulate the approval of the constitutional change. With part of the expenses blocked, conditioned to the PEC, the elected government could, upon taking office, anticipate the use of resources already foreseen in the Budget and free of restrictions to carry out the most emergency policies.
The main example would be to use the R$ 105.7 billion already granted to Auxílio Brasil to issue an MP, at the beginning of the year, instituting the minimum benefit of R$ 600. The amount is enough to fund eight months of benefit, and the rest would be conditioned to the PEC. Within the TCU there is no restriction on this path.
The third option would be the combination of PEC with extraordinary credits. A scenario without constitutional changes, with expenses funded only by MP, is practically discarded in the face of the series of legal obstacles raised by the technicians.
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